Saraya made her AEW debut at AEW Dynamite Grand Slam 2022.
One year later, she walks into AEW Dynamite Grand Slam as the AEW Women's Champion.
Saraya (Paige in WWE) joined AEW as a babyface, getting cheered by the fans as she was returning from a career-ending neck injury. Within months, she had turned the fans against her as a member of the Outcasts.
Speaking to Alistair McGeorge of Metro, Saraya discussed her heel turn.
"I always wanted to be a heel, even before [AEW] knew I was gonna be wrestling again. I always wanted to be a bad guy. Because I already knew it wasn’t going to be long until they turned on me. I knew that. I said that – having conversations before I came to AEW, I was speaking to Jon Moxley, I was speaking to [Chris] Jericho, I was speaking to Tony Khan. They were all telling me, 'You’re gonna be a babyface first because people are just gonna be happy to see you.' It was really frustrating," she admitted. "What I kept doing is I kept throwing in heelish things in promos or how I acted, things like that. I wanted that slow burn anyway and then eventually I was gonna get the opportunity to turn heel – I just had to wait a little bit. It worked out!"
Saraya has leaned into things more on Twitter, responding to fans in a hellish manner.
"Wrestling twitter is so soft. It’s because it’s a bunch of misogynistic neck beards or stan accounts who can’t tell a wrist lock from a pad lock. But they follow everything I do. Watch my tweets. Search my name. Keep me trending. That’s showbiz baby!" she stated.
Saraya will defend her AEW Women's Championship against Toni Storm at AEW Dynamite Grand Slam.
Fightful will have live coverage of the event beginning at 8 p.m. ET.
